‘Synthetic Zero’
Curated by Mitsu Hadeishi
December 21, 2022 - January 5, 2023
Opening Reception: Wed., Dec. 21, 5:30-8pm
‘ART ACTIONS’ from THE POINT
Curated by Carey Clark
November 12 - December 17, 2022
Opening: Saturday, Nov. 12, 6-8pm
Closing: Thursday, Dec. 15, 3-7pm
This exhibition is a showcase of THE POINT’s legacy and future.
"Through art-making we determine our survival, in the face of ever-worsening natural disasters. In this artistic showcase, the RESILIENCE of Hunts Point can be seen"
Since the devastation of Storm Sandy 10 years ago, and even before that, THE POINT’s Resiliency Artists in Residence Project (R.A.I.R.) has hosted residencies for artists with the aim of promoting community-based strategies for survival in the face of climate change. Resident artists have worked to engage local industries, elders, local fisherman and young people to promote vital information for emergency preparedness. Through imaginative acts of story-telling, painting, river science and bread-making, participants have shared invaluable knowledge about important community services, such as community wi-fi and cooling stations during heatwaves. Part of this exhibition will showcase artworks from past artists in residence. The artists have also been invited to create new work(s) and/or hold workshops.
Workshops:
Poetry Writing Workshop - Mariposa
Portrait Workshop - Hatuey Ramos Fermin
Be a Buddy - Emergency Preparedness - Aryanna Osorio
Disco-Tech - Community Wifi Network: Danny R. Peralta
(Dates and times soon to be announced)
The urgency of the work of THE POINT's artists has steadily increased over the last 10 years with the growing environmental crisis, and now the pandemic.
"As part of our mission, THE POINT strives to create a system of mentorship and professional development for students who are serious about the arts. THE POINT opened its doors in 1994, a time when Hunts Point was facing declining investment and tarnished morale. Responding to a community in crisis, our organization began working with local residents to strengthen this South Bronx neighborhood. Since its inception, THE POINT has bolstered community members' endeavors in the arts. By addressing environmental and social injustices, our organization has contributed to the area's resurgence in arts and culture, as well as Emergency Preparedness in its own unique way."
Photo: Blanka Amezkua, Con Amor workshop at McInnis Bench Art Site at the Oak Point Greenway
Participating artists include Blanka Amezkua | Brandon Ballengée | BRAC Teen Project Studio+2.0 (Ukari Bakosi, Mykerine Vincent, Katherine Miranda, GeAnn Stephan, Fernanda Carvalho Santos, and Chuxi Guo) | Lynn Cazabon | Elders from Pio Mendez under the direction of Blanka Amezkua | Girls Write Too! (Karen (Kay Love) Pedrosa, Carolina (Erotica 67) Diaz, Scratch (Creative Firecracker) and Shiro) | Alicia Grullon | Minds Empowered under the direction of Tiffany Williams | Eric Orr with Sally Mann, Electra Weston and Outlaw Ocean Mural Project | Danny R. Peralta | Plotzing Press | Hatuey Ramos Fermin, with community | Rudlings Collective (Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Kaleb Hunkele, and Richard Zimmerman) | Roy Secord | Summer Youth Employment Program under the direction of Rodrick (Strong Warrior) Bell | Alberto Villalobos | Harry Whitney
ABYA YALA: Structural Origins
September 29 - November 5, 2022
Opening Reception: September 28, 5:30-8pm
Salon de Grabados Latinoamericano Abya Yala
An exhibition of Latin American prints as part of the New York Latin American Art Triennial 2022
ACTIVITIES
Friday, Sept. 30th, 2-4 PM: Latexgrafia, PrintMaking Workshop by Priscila Romero
Sunday, Oct. 2nd, 2-5 PM: Artist Bookation Workshop by Consuelo Gotay
Monday, Oct. 3rd, 5-7 pm: “Historia de Yuke” book circulation by Eduardo Lalo & Consuelo Gotay
Modes of Freedom, the fifth offering: An evening of storytelling and reflection
Thursday, September 22, 2022 at BAS
Curated by Caitlyn Campbell & FreeStrata Projects
How do we use Art and different forms of making as a tool for justice in the face of
ever-unfolding injustices and inequalities?
Can we explicate our individual and collective experiences with layered carceral systems and structures of control, through creativity?
Can a story be Art? Can Art be a story?
We look forward to exploring with you.
The evening is anchored in an immersive installation by artist Michael Conroy. Campbell and Conroy will publicly discuss expanding patterns of gentrification across the New York landscape. This will be followed by a live poetry reading by a currently incarcerated artist, who will take us on an intimate journey through a lifetime spent behind bars: 21 of them in solitary confinement. Musician Angelo Cherry will then lead us a on creative passage of sound with his violin and keyboard. Cherry's music sheds light on how different forms of storytelling can be powerful modes of freedom and justice.
Michael Conroy in his immersive installation at BronxArtSpace
Black Men Meet: Let’s Talk About Love
Film Screening, Saturday, August 27, 2022
Ashley Antonia Lopez created a documentary feature called "Black Men Meet: Let’s Talk About Love." The feature has 8 Black Men talking about love. It shows that Black Men have love languages and they are trying their best every single day. The feature will open the conversation of how Black Men love.
Click here to watch the YouTube trailer
Featuring:
Evan Bishop
Darnell Wickham
Marc Aupont
Danice Crump
Tyler Damon Rice
Marquees Hargett
David Rhoden
Duval Clemmons
Directed by: Ashley Antonia Lopez
DP by: Alejandro Rosario
Edited by: Alejandro Rosario
2nd AC/Second Operator: Aaron Franco
Produced by: XX Theater Company LLC
Follow @howblackmenlove for updates!
Giving Light: Arts for Social Justice through the lens of human rights
June 30 - July 23, 2022
Daniel Castro, Yours is Mine, 2021, acrylic on styrofoam cutout, 47x70 inches
BronxArtSpace is pleased to announce Beverly Emers’s curatorial debut in
Giving Light: Arts for Social Justice through the lens of human rights.
Through the lens of a mother, community organizer, and Bronx resident she presents an exhibit of diverse forms of expression that will provoke thought, emotion, conversation, and a call to action.
She is joined by 12 artists who have responded to this public health issue that primarily impacts communities of color. The exhibition gives light to the issue and the need for healing from trauma while sending light to those who have survived and those who are no longer here due to the epidemic of gun violence.
The exhibiting artists include Noble Dre Ali, Aileen Bassis, Kiki Bencosme, Daniel Castro, Jordan Corine Cruz, Christine Defazio, David Dixon, Shawn Mathis Gooden, Julia Justo, Azumi Uchitani, Diane T. Williams aka Artacted, and Tammy Wofsey.
Exhibition programming:
July 1, 2-5pm: Community Welcome Reception with music and refreshments
6-8pm Words are Power hosted by The Gathering
July 8, 6-8pm: Calligraphy meditation with Azumi Uchitani
July 9, 10am-12pm: Kintsugi Workshop lead by Azumi Uchitani
July 15, 6-8pm: Kintsugi Workshop lead by Azumi Uchitani
July 17, 1pm: Aztec dance group CETILIZTLI NAUHCAMPA perform
July 22: New York Botanical Garden with Around the Table artist Noble Dre Ali
July 23: Sharing Light: How We Strengthen Communities By Sharing Our Stories, an interactive conversation with Beverly Emers and the Nicole Heals Podcast on how switch/chancla culture and food apartheid contribute to gun violence. Attendees will explore the importance of healing from racial trauma and sharing healthy family meals as a solution.
About the artists:
Noble Dre Ali, Is a multidisciplinary visual artist. His digital portraits are printed and presented on canvas. Ali utilizes popular culture imagery then infuses it with spiritual symbols in what he coins Spiritual Pop Art.
Aileen Bassis is from the Highbridge section of the Bronx and now lives and works in Long Island City. She has degrees in art from Binghamton University and Hunter College. Her practice includes work in book arts, printmaking, installation and digital photography.
Kiki Bencosme is a Dominican-American interdisciplinary artist based in The Bronx. Creating art to initiate a visual conversation with others, her work offers the opportunity to ask ourselves questions about social progress. Emerging from generational poverty, she creates socio-political sculptures, installations, and illustrations that arise from her own experiences, confronting issues such as housing insecurity, gender-based oppression, and racism.
Daniel Castro is a Puerto Rican artist born and raised in The Bronx, NY where he still lives currently. He studied Painting and Drawing at SUNY Purchase’s Art + Design program, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in the summer of 2020
Jordan Corine Cruz is a queer interdisciplinary artist working across installation,sculpture, photography, video, and performance. Her work examines nostalgia as a mechanism for survival and liberation rooted in forming diasporic Puerto Rican identities.
Christine Defazio is an art educator and artist working in the Bronx focusing on Urban Arts. Her Pop Art artwork focuses on capturing the psyche of her sitters, often caught in a dilemma expressed through allegory or myth with a touch of Surrealism. She aims to convey stories of love, longing and despair, through her imagery of the female form.
David Dixon is an emerging artist working primarily in oils and acrylics. Much of his work is focused on documenting my experiences. I have visited many countries collecting memories, insights, gaining respect for others and learning more with each trip about the fullness and struggles of the human experience.
Shawn Mathis Gooden is an interdisciplinary artist creating mixed media drawings and installations. Each piece is triggered by either a piece of literature or position in one of the communities of which she belongs.
Julia Justo - is an interdisciplinary artist born in Argentina with Indigenous-Italian ancestry. She works across mixed media, textiles and social practice.
Using strategies drawn from education, research and community activism, she invites participation and collective imagining.
Azumi Uchitani is a multidisciplinary artist who is visiting us from Dublin and will share the essence of Japanese ancient wisdom and healing power through calligraphy based art, poem, writing, talks, performance and teaching. Born into a traditional family in the land of spirituality, Wakayama, Japan and brought up with cultural spiritual practice.
Diane T. Williams aka Artacted is a visual and contemporary artist whose work is founded on historic and cultural research. She considers herself the “historian artist who uses her canvases as her social justice platform” because she uses her art as a platform to raise awareness about past and current political, cultural, historical, and social justice issues that affect communities of color.
Tammy Wofsey - Tammy Wofsey is a visual artist with a focus in printmaking and book arts. She has established her publishing press and printmaking studio in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx called Plotzing Press. She grew up in Colorado. The horizon of mountains seen from any direction, lack of water due to the desert-like climate, and limited oxygen from high altitudes influenced her interest in our bodies' relationship to the natural world which eventually found its way into her studio practice.
Soul Box Project, a nonprofit raising awareness of the U.S. gunfire epidemic, join BAS in organising this exhibition.
The exhibition and programming was supported by generous donations from Materials for the Arts, Bronx Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, NYC Council Immigration Initiative, NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and Yankees Stadium Community Benefit Fund.
Haile Binns is mostly inspired by map making in the Caribbean and makes maps in her own way to tell the history of her people. While doing research about her family in Jamaica she discovered some were Maroons with psychic abilities. Maroons were a group of enslaved people in Jamaica that fought for their freedom and won against the British. She came across maps of slave revolution during her research and has been inspired ever since. The maps she works with are all created by the white men of Britain and Spain and none were created by the Maroons who knew the islands best. What remains is a one-sided view of Jamaican history.
Carlos W. Encarnación presents two pieces that are part of a series called "Bodegones", a body of work in which he reinterprets the traditions of the bodegón or “still life”and pre-columbian arts from Puerto Rico. By exploring the notions of celebratory images around local produce, Encarnación examines the way colonialism controls and corrupts the food system in the archipelago. In addition this series looks at the work of Puerto Rican painters and their celebratory depictions of tropical bodegones created in the 1890’s and early 1900’s and its contribution to the popular arts and fine arts in the island. These influences are a manifestation of his origins, cultural heritage, diasporic experiences and concerns.
Mateo Gutiérrez is a Brooklyn NY based contemporary artist who makes hand-embroidered paintings. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland and raised in Tokyo, Japan before moving to the U.S. at the age of sixteen. His hand-embroidered paintings tell a story of the traumatic conditions of modern American society through the lens of immigration and mass shootings. By juxtaposing these images Mateo brings into question the underlying ethos of violence endemic to American history, culture and daily life. His work is both a sociopolitical and a deeply personal reflection on what it means to be American. Gutiérrez presents a powerful critique of the traumatic effects of the so-called "American way of life" and also what it means to be an outsider as both foreign born and Latinx.
Nilufa Yeasmin is a multi-media Bangladeshi-American artist based in Bronx, New York. Her relationship to the world is literal and clear-cut whereas her relationship with herself is in constant flux and abstract. She utilizes mediums such as embroidery, animation and paint to create work that addresses her headspace, physical space and the intersection between the two (i.e. proprioception). Dots embody proprioception in her work by taking the form of eggs, stars, fingerprints and blood to name a few. The repetition of these precious nouns help Yeasmin to animate her images - they dance, sparkle and flow depending on what they’re made out of.
Musah Swallah is a visual artist born and raised in Accra, Ghana. For Musah, art is a tool for self expression, creating awareness, and transforming society. His paintings, sculptures, and mixed media works render stories that reflect African identity, cultural values and daily life. Currently, he paints on repurposed wooden panels, plywood, paper and canvases to create layered mixed media portraits. Swallah’s current art speaks to the complex transnational identities of the African Diaspora.